1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a seat belt system for the restraint of an occupant in an automotive vehicle or the like, and specifically to a buckle stalk for such a seat belt system.
2) Description of the Related Art
A vehicle seat belt system includes a buckle stalk for holding an occupant-restraining webbing over a lap portion of an occupant. The buckle stalk is constructed of an anchor member to be fixed to a floor on a side of a vehicle body, a buckle member permitting releasable securement of a webbing thereon, and a stalk member connecting the anchor member and the buckle member to each other.
The buckle stalk is required to maintain the buckle member at a suitable height and also to have tensile strength sufficient to withstand pulling force which may be applied thereto via the webbing in the event of a vehicular accident such as a collision. In addition, it is also required to exhibit a certain degree of flexibility so that it can follow movements of the occupant during its use.
There have conventionally been developed seat belt systems in which a buckle stalk and its associated parts are each made of a metal, typified by those of the so-called wire type in which a wire is used to enhance the strength of a buckle stalk, a fixture for securing the wire to the floor of the vehicle body is fixed to a basal end of the wire, and a connector for connecting the wire to a buckle is fixed to a free end of the wire. These metallic buckle stalks are however accompanied by drawbacks such that because of the high rigidity of their fixtures and buckles, tongues attached to the proximal ends of corresponding webbings cannot be inserted easily or smoothly into buckles and their users do not feel comfortable.
As a solution to the above drawbacks, reference may be made, for example, to Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 20208/1982 published Apr. 30, 1982. A connector is bent or a lower extension of a buckle is bent, whereby the buckle is tilted toward an occupant in an associated seat. In similar ways, various improvements have been made to permit smoother fastening and release of a webbing or to exhibit a certain degree of flexibility to follow movements of an occupant during the use. For similar objects, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 154277/1984 laid open to the public on Oct. 16, 1984 discloses a method to cover a wire with a metal pipe and then bend the pipe.
The above techniques are however applicable only where a stalk member is made of a metal. A nonmetallic buckle stalk has the advantage that it has sufficient flexibility to follow movements of an occupant. However, the non-metallic buckle stalk does not permit inclined arrangement of a buckle relative to a stalk member. Where a stalk member is formed of a fibrous fabric (e.g., a fibrous woven band), the stalk member and the buckle are connected straight by conventional techniques.
If the stalk member and the buckle are connected in a straight manner as described above, a tongue-receiving socket of the buckle opens in the direction of an extension of the buckle stalk when the buckle stalk is mounted on a vehicle body. This has led to the problem that smooth and quick insertion and release of the associated tongue are hampered.